


First Among Equals

by hellabaloo



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Brothers, Drabble Collection, Gen, Yuletide Madness Drabble Invitational
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 22:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2789651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellabaloo/pseuds/hellabaloo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It used to be easier for the Shelby brothers to pretend that they ran the Peaky Blinders together, as a family democracy, rather than acknowledge the truth of Tommy’s position.</p>
<p>Three drabbles for the Shelby brothers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Among Equals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [originally](https://archiveofourown.org/users/originally/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide!

John knew from the day their father left; when Polly tried to explain how things would be, Arthur ran out pretending he wasn’t about to cry, the soppy bastard—he came back hours later with a split lip and hardened look in his eyes—but Tommy just went all quiet. John didn’t understand everything going on, but when she gave them a sweet each he knew it was nothing good.

Tommy stopped him in the hall, his hands on John’s shoulders and looked him dead in the eye.

“We don’t need him, Johnny-boy. Bastard doesn’t deserve to be a Shelby.”

 

[]

 

Arthur had always been good at ignoring what he didn’t want to see, or pretending that he didn’t know what it meant.

Tommy and Polly, heads bent together, speaking in hushed tones, but stopping when he was early for a family meeting. Tommy straightening Johnny’s collar and cap, sending him out on an errand with a few final instructions. Tommy keeping Finn from sneaking too much whiskey. 

Billy Kimber blustered into the Garrison shouting for Mr. Shelby, which by birth ought to mean him, but Arthur knew it didn’t, and it wasn’t hard to pretend he’d always been Tommy’s man.

 

[]

 

Tommy could divide his life in two: before France and after France. 

Before France, Tommy Shelby and the Peaky Blinders were small-time. After France, he would always be Thomas Shelby, awarded medals for gallantry.

Before France, he knew he could fairly easily convince his brothers to follow his lead. After France, he had ideas that went far beyond Birmingham, and would require more than just his brothers to follow him.

France taught him the full extent of what men could do to one another. France also taught him what he might do with his brothers, and brothers-in-arms, at his side.

 

[]

 


End file.
